Mrs. Roemerfeld - 1982?

Introduction

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...Romerfeld, who lives on Sussex in Oak Park. My name is Mrs. Eva Lipton and I am the interviewer. Mrs. Romerfeld, would please state your name, your maiden name and how old you are, where you were live.

My maiden name is ??? Romerfeld. Uh, oh, I'm sorry, uh, it's ??? Müller, my maiden name, and my married name is Romerfeld and I'm fifty-five years old. I was born in, in Płońsk in Poland. It's approximately seventy kilometers from Warsaw and, uh...

Could you tell me something about your family in Poland?

Yes, my father was a furrier and uh, my mother took care of the business, we had a grocery store. And uh, uh, I had one brother, which he also died in the camp. Uh...

Was your brother younger or older?

He was two years older.

He was two years old. Okay, can you describe something about your um, household, your religious practices, the synagogues you belonged to?

Well, as you know, that uh, most of the Jews from Eastern Europe were religious. They were--it was no such thing as not being religious because if the Sabbath was kept up and uh, the businesses were closed on Saturday. And uh, um, although, you know, it was not permitted to be opened on Sunday...[dog barks]

[interruption in interview]

Now, where was I? Uh...
EL You were saying about how religious...

Yeah. And uh, some of the people who did own a business did open on Sundays. Sometimes they paid a fine for it, but they didn't care, they kept on doing it and uh...

Who charged them the fine?

Uh, the Polish government. Uh, the discrimination was very strong. As I can recall uh, I used to see on the windows of my mother's store slogans, don't buy from a Jew...

[interruption in interview]

...you know, at that time.

Okay, do you...

It's just that, that uh, I would like to make the statement that uh, uh, we did, did not attend public school. We went to a private Jews school sponsored by Jews. We were not allowed to go to the public school. Also, like you have Akiva here, or whatever, I went to Beit Yakov It was like a Hebrew school where I was taught Hebrew. But the public school was strictly sponsored by Jews.